


Midnight Tea

by goldfishoflove



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Sibling Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-09
Updated: 2018-08-09
Packaged: 2019-06-24 06:36:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15624849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goldfishoflove/pseuds/goldfishoflove
Summary: It's a good thing elves don't sleep, because after the Legato Conservatory performance, the twins need to talk.





	Midnight Tea

**Author's Note:**

> If you'd like to refresh your memory of the music from the duet scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecM7_3rs5gU

Lup and Barry walked up the short path from the Legato Conservatory to the Starblaster with their fingers entwined. She was swinging her heels in her free hand, and her bare feet carried her silently up the gangplank. As they entered the dim corridor, Barry slowed and put his hand up to the wall.

“Do you want a light?” Lup whispered.

Barry shook his head. “I don’t want to--” He interrupted himself with a yawn, then grinned sheepishly. “--to wake anybody up.”

Lup nodded and led him through the pitch-black common room to his door. Without saying a word they moved together, she leaning into his chest and he wrapping his arms around her in one gesture.

“I wish I could stay up with you,” Barry murmured.

Lup smirked, watching him try to blink his heavy eyelids back open. “You’ll just have to have a nice dream about me.”

Barry smiled crookedly. “Wouldn’t be the first.”

Lup rewarded that with a kiss, then eyed him with mock sternness. “Okay, seriously. Go to sleep so you can sweet talk me some more in the morning.”

Barry chuckled softly. “All right, all right.” He leaned in for one more long kiss.

“Good night, Lup,” he whispered as they parted.

“‘Night, Barry.”

He slipped quietly into his room and closed the door behind him. Lup turned, took a step into the common room, and stopped.

“Rude,” she said.

“I know, right? He was looking right at me and didn’t even say anything.” Taako didn’t look up from his book.

Lup rolled her eyes. “You know he’s just darkblind.” She sat down across from him at the table. “Fucking humans, right?”

“Surprised you’re not doing that right now, actually.”

“Oh, I plan to.”

“I’m sure. Have fun with that.” Taako snapped the book shut and stood up. “Good night.”

Taako took two steps away from the table and then stopped. He glared down at the magehand holding his upper arm. “What.”

“What yourself.” Lup stared at him, wand in hand. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong.” Taako’s voice was flat.

“Bullshit.” Lup stood up, dispelling the magehand as she crossed the room to stand behind him. “Taako, are you mad at me?”

Taako folded his arms. “No.”

Lup furrowed her brow and crossed her arms, staring at Taako’s back.

“... are you jealous?” she tried.

Taako spun around. “Am I jealous? Of your stupid nerd-ass boyfriend? Not fucking hardly.”

Lup’s eyes narrowed. “What the _fuck_ , Taako!”

“Shh!” He put a finger to his lips, glancing meaningfully at the doors around them. “You want to wake everybody up?”

Lup fumed. “I want to know why the fuck you’re mad about this!” she hissed. “I kinda thought you might, you know, be happy for me?”

“Yeah?” Taako glared at her. “Well, I kinda thought we still told each other everything, but here we are!”

Lup blinked. “What are you _talking_ about?”

“Are you serious right now?” Taako was staring.

“You think I’m hiding something?” Lup's fury had given way to genuine confusion.

“You were hiding it pretty well from all of us until the concert tonight!” Taako looked away and let out a breath in a huff. “I mean of course I knew _something_ was up, but then I thought, nah, it’s Lup! She would tell you. At least before she told the _entire fucking plane_ about it. She’d let you in on it first. Always did before!”

Lup didn’t answer. Taako turned back and saw her mouth hanging open.

“Oh,” she said. “Holy shit. Oh, Koko.”

“Don’t patronize me.”

“I’m not … sorry.” Lup exhaled. Her eyes were wide. “Taako, it’s not like that.”

“Are you sure?” He glared. “Because it looks a whole fucking lot like that.”

Lup met his eyes. “Taako, I swear, you are the absolute first person I would have told. You’re the first person I _am_ telling! There wasn’t anything to tell before this.”

“Bullshit.” Taako was still frowning, but his voice was uncertain. “You’re trying to tell me you went from zero to _have a nice dream about me_ in the space of--” His eyes flicked to the clock and back. “--like six hours.”

Lup blushed. She rubbed her temple and stared past him into the distance. “God,” she said quietly. “It really is still the same night, isn’t it.” The corners of her mouth twitched upwards.

Taako stared at her. “Holy shit,” he said slowly. “That _is_ what you’re telling me.”

Lup nodded, still smiling to herself. “I mean there was …” She waved a hand vaguely in the space between herself and Barry’s closed door. “... _something_. Like you said. We’ve been working on that piece for months, and when we rehearsed it …” She trailed off.

Taako’s eyes lit up. “See, this?” He gestured triumphantly. “This is the tea I expect from you!”

Lup laughed, then quickly clapped a hand over her mouth. Taako rolled his eyes. He glanced around, pointed at the ladder to the deck, and raised his eyebrows.

Lup nodded.

“Okay, now spill,” Taako began, the moment the hatch was closed behind them. “How in the _actual fuck_ did you turn that man from your accompanist to your inamorato in the space of an evening.”

“He wasn’t my _accompanist_!” Lup gasped.

“Oh my _god_ , Lup, that was the least important part of that sentence.”

“Did you _hear_ him tonight? Taako, he wrote most of that. The theme was mine, originally, but the entire piano part--and the way they fit together, the whole ending--well, that was both of us, really, but the way he _played_ it--”

Lup was glowing. Taako gaped.

“Lulu,” he said slowly. “I think you’d better take this from the top.”

So she did.

She told him about the melody, composed on a moody day while she was practicing by herself. Barry had overheard and coaxed her into playing it again while he fit the first few chords underneath. It developed from there, each new section adding a tug of longing in a new octave or a shifting tempo. She would lean close over his shoulder to suggest a change in the manuscript, or he would lock eyes with her while pressing into a crescendo, and they _knew_ … but when each rehearsal ended, the spell seemed to break. They walked home flushed and tingling, but distant, talking about anything but the ache in their hearts.

“I don't get it,” Taako said. They were lying on their backs on the deck, watching the first few stars disappear into the dawn. “The Lup I know would have just jumped his bones a week into this. Why didn’t you say something?”

“I’m honestly not sure either,” Lup admitted. “It just … wasn’t time to resolve yet, you know? Not until tonight.”

“If you cram one more music pun into this story I’m going to shove your bow up your--”

Lup cackled. Taako sighed.

“Never mind, there’s the Lup I know.”

She turned her head to shoot him a giddy grin. He shook his head fondly.

“You’ve got it _bad_ for that nerd.”

Lup looked back up at the stars, still smiling absently.

“Yeah,” she said. “I think I do.”


End file.
